Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Successful adaptation in our complex and unpredictable world depends on our ability to adapt to change by flexibly adjusting our behaviour. Cognitive flexibility, self-control and the brain networks that support them vary across the life course, peaking in late 20s and declining in old age. They also vary across different people within the same life stage. These mechanisms are critical for the development of adaptive behaviours specific to different stages of life. For instance, self-control in childhood is predictive of physical and mental health in middle age, and poor lifestyle choices in middle age are predictive of risk of cognitive decline in old age. My research group targets variability in cognitive flexibility and self-control across the life course. We examine how these processes are linked to variability in brain network maturation, and how this relationship influences adaptive behaviours in the real world. We seek to identify age-specific factors that mediate successful adaptation and strategies to promote positive outcomes at different stages of life. Our aim is to identify age-appropriate neurocognitive markers of risk for poor outcomes (e.g., susceptibility to high-risk behaviours, emergence of early brain/cognitive decline associated with cardiovascular risk factors) and develop personalised, targeted intervention programs to improve cognitive flexibility and promote positive outcomes across the life course.

I head a vibrant research program (http://www.age-ility.org.au">www.age-ility.org.au</a>) that includes collaboration with senior researchers and clinicians at the University of Newcastle well as other national and international institutions. This work is supported by and contributes to the training of many high-calibre PhD and Honours students. The work is conducted within the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory in the School of Psychology and the Imaging Centre at Hunter Medical Research Institute.

Qualifications

PhD, University of New South Wales

Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), Deree College, Greece

Masters Qualifying (Psychology)(Honours), University of New South Wales

Research

Research keywords

Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Psychophysiology

Developmental Psychopathology

Executive Control Processes

Research expertise

Dr Karayanidis' broad research area is cognitive neuroscience, with a specific focus on the structural and functional organization of cognitive control processes. Her research uses multi-disciplinary techniques to examine the organization of cognitive control processes in healthy controls, the development of these processes across the lifespan and their disruption in clinical conditions such as schizophrenia and ADHD. Dr Karayanidis has extensive expertise with event-related potential (ERP) methodology and considerable experience in paradigm development for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

Dr Karayanidis is currently director of the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory at the University of Newcastle, co-convenor of the Emerging Programs Panel of the Priority Research Panel for Brain and Mental Health Research, psychology representative on the Connectivity and Cognition Executive Panel of the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), member of the Management Committee of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Research Volunteer Register and Scientific Member of the Advisory Committee of Parkinson's NSW. Within the School of Psychology, she has research affiliations with the Neuroscience Group (headed by Prof Michie) and the Human Experimental Applied Dynamics (headed by A/Prof Heathcote) and coordinates the Fourth Year Program.

Dr Karayanidis has been co-investigator on a number of NH&MRC project grants (invited AI on NHMRC-PG 940864; CI on NHMRC-PG 209828 and NHMRC-PG 351129). She has established widespread research collaborations with colleagues in the Hunter region in the areas of cognitive control in ADHD, auditory processing and sensory gating in schizophrenia and Parkinson's Disease, integration of RT distribution analyses and ERP averaging, face processing in middle childhood, autism and ADHD, as well as internationally. This research has attracted over $1.0M in NCG and small grant funding over the last 10 years. Dr Karayanidis has supervised the research of more than 30 Honours students (7 Hons I) and 11 post-graduate students (5 awarded) and has had extensive experience in large project supervision and coordination both in her current position and in her overseas post-doctoral fellowship.

Dr Karayanidis has published 23 full papers in peer reviewed international journals (impact factors 1.09-6.78, 12-49 citations for 1st author publications), presented 22 invited papers and 84 conference papers. In 2004, Dr Karayanidis organised and chaired the first symposium on ERP measures of task-switching at the 20th World Congress of Psychophysiology (IOP). In January 2005, she chaired a discussion session on the same topic at the International Conference on Attentional Control in Taiwan. In 2005, Prof Michie and Dr Karayanidis developed a collaborative project to examine ERP and fMRI measures of cognitive control in schizophrenia with co-supervision of two RHD students.

Investigating motor preparation and the importance of external information in people with Parkinsons disease. University of Western Australia, Australia (PHD Examiner.)

2006

Collaboration

My research on cognitive flexibility across the lifespan involves a cross-disciplinary team including Prof Birte Forstmann at the University of Amsterdam, Prof Natalie Phillips at Concordia University, Prof Rhoshel Lenroot at UNSW, as well as Em.Prof Pat Michie and Prof Andrew Heathcote from Psychology and A/Prof Mark Parsons from Neurology.

My research on white matter lesions and cognitive control in healthy ageing and stroke involves cross-disciplinary collaboration with Prof Chris Levi and A/Prof Mark Parsons from Neurology, Dr Grant Bateman from Hunter Imaging, and emerging links with researchers from the Florey and HMRI.

Administrative

Administrative expertise

Convenor of Early Career Academics Program of Faculty of Science and Information Technology (2003-2004).

Co-founder and inaugural member of HMRI Research Volunteer Register (2003-current).

Program Convenor for Graduate Diploma in Psychology (2006-current).

Member of Faculty of Science and IT Human Ethics Research Committee (2001-2004).

Convenor (2002-2003) and Member (2004) of the School of Psychology Misconduct Committee.

Advisory Panel for Parkinson's NSW (2002-current)

Teaching

Teaching keywords

Cognitive Neuroscience

Critical Thinking and Analysis

Developmental Psychopathology

Research Methodology

Teaching expertise

Course Coordination:

1st year Coordinator (2000-2004).

4th Year Coordinator (2006-current)

Coordinator of three 3rd year courses focusing on Research Statistics and Methodology (2004-current), Research Design (2000-2002), Developmental Psychology (2002-2003) and Critical Analysis and Review (2006-current).

Block lecturing:

Introductory Psychology (2000-2005)

Research Statistics and Methodology (2003-current), Research Design (2000-2002)

This paper and its companion (Karayanidis, F., Whitson, L.R., Heathcote, A., Michie, P. (2011). Front.Psychology 2:318. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00318) provide a detailed profile of variability in cognitive control across the adult lifespan and an exploration of the underlying mechanisms.

This paper uses a new analysis approach to that applies RT distributions to model single-trial ERP data. It provides the first solid evidence for a switch-specific cognitive preparation process and indicates that this process varies across trials within the same participant, indicating a flexible process that is under conscious control.

This paper represents an international research collaboration with the University of Amsterdam. We use a multidisciplinary model-based neuroscience approach to integrate cognitive models with functional neuroimaging data in order to define brain networks associated with risky decision making. It appeared in the highly prestigious Journal of Neuroscience and has already amassed 9 citations.

My 2003 Psychophysiology publication was the first paper to systematically apply event-related potential (ERP) methodology to characterise advance preparation and task implementation processes in task-switching performance. This paper has received over 100 citations and defined many parameters for future studies in the field. Together with Nicholson et al. 2005, these papers continue to have a high annual citation rate (over 21 in 2012). With more recent studies, this work is widely acknowledged for having established the ERP signatures of proactive and reactive cognitive control processes in task switching, as evidenced by the invitation to write a review chapter on ERPs in task-switching for a book published by Oxford University Press.

McKay PJ, Chalmers KA, Karayanidis F, Sanday D, 'Do all components of executive function follow the same path? An investigation of the development of working memory, shifting, and response inhibition during childhood', Combined Abstracts of 2010 Australian Psychology Conferences, Melbourne, Vic (2010) [E3]

ASE - Faculty of Science and IT$2,000Funding Body: University of Newcastle

A structural and functional brain imaging study of how white matter lesions in patients with minor ischaemic stroke relate to cognitive and motor control.$1,750Funding Body: National Heart Foundation of Australia

The Development and Application of Quantitative Approaches to Investigate Spatial Processing Improvement and Cognitive Control

2008

2013

PhD (Psychology - Science)

Co-Supervisor

The development of Executive Function during childhood

2008

2011

PhD (Clinical Psychology)

Principal Supervisor

Performance on the Task-Switching Paradigm in Childhood: The Contribution of Executive Function Components and Relation to Problem Behaviour

2004

2008

PhD (Psychology - Science)

Principal Supervisor

To be advised

Past Supervision

Year

Program

Supervisor Type

Research Title

2014

PhD (Psychology - Science)

Principal Supervisor

Cognitive Control Across the Adult Lifespan: A Combined Cognitive Modelling and Event-Related Potential Approach

2013

PhD (Psychology - Science)

Principal Supervisor

Dissecting Proactive Control Processes in Task-Switching: A Model-Based Neuroscience Approach

2011

PhD (Psychology - Science)

Principal Supervisor

Formulation of Stimuli Sets and Evaluation of Facial Emotion Processing in Typically Developing Individuals and in the Clinical Populations of Intellectual Disability, Autistic Disorder, and Asperger's Disorder